South Korea: Arrest of Ousted President Yoon Fails

Political tensions in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, have reached a peak after a failed attempt to arrest ousted South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. At around 08:00 (local time) on Friday, January 3, a team from the anti-corruption agency coordinating the investigation against Yoon entered the presidential residence to arrest the deposed president, who had previously ignored three summonses for questioning.

Presidential Guards loyal to Yoon, surrounded by many hundreds of supporters gathered outside the palace, resisted the police. According to South Korean media reports, there was “a very tense standoff” between the police officers who went to arrest Yoon and the president’s bodyguards.

For a few hours, Seoul witnessed a dramatic new episode of chaos, culminating in a statement from investigators: the attempted arrest of ousted President Yoon Suk-yeol, accused of treason, has been suspended. Investigators still have until Monday, January 6, to execute an arrest warrant issued by a Seoul court that expires in seven days.

“As for the execution of the arrest warrant today, it has been determined that it is physically impossible due to the ongoing impasse. Concerns about the safety of personnel at the scene led to the decision to halt the execution,” South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Bureau said in a statement.

As an arrest warrant was issued for Yoon on December 31 “for attempting to declare martial law in the Asian country,” hundreds of loyal supporters of the ousted president gathered outside the presidential palace, saying they were even willing to fight to protect him. For his part, Yoon also vowed to “resist until the end” in a letter sent to his supporters in recent days.